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Google Chrome: Thumbs Up or Down?

Now that most of us have downloaded and tried the new Google Chrome browser, what’s the verdict? Will Chrome become your primary web browser of will you stick with you favorite one?

But before that, let’s see what’s under the hood of Google Chrome and compare that with other browsers (layout engine):

Google Chrome: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13

Mozilla Firefox 3: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

Flock 1.2.4: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.16) Gecko/20080714 Firefox/2.0.0.16 Flock/1.2.4

Apple Safari: AppleWebKit

Opera 9.5: Presto

In a sense, Chrome is like a hybrid of Firefox and Safari. It’s lean and its fast. When Flock came out, it was also lean and fast which is why I still use it as a secondary browser today. But nothing beats Firefox’s development community and the extensions.

Note: Google Chrome is running a serious security flaw so I wouldn’t encourage downloading and using it for the meantime.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

42 Responses

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  8. Avatar for jaffy jaffy says:

    i’ve been using chrome at home since it came out. and when it got out of beta, it’s way way better now performancewise and in stability.

  9. Avatar for Robert Robert says:

    I still prefer Safari…

  10. Avatar for chewy chewy says:

    I downloaded it last week and have been using it for a few days. I like the sleekness of the GUI and how shift+Esc brings up the Chrome taskbar (showing you how much memory each page is using and how much bandwidth is being used)

    google was right by saying that the autonomous tab makes for a better browsing experience in the “long run” as you open and close tabs and pages, but it doesn’t make the browser faster when you first access it. It doesn’t bloat at all compared to firefox.

    Frustrating though that my multiply uploads don’t go smoothly, and facebook is JUST A PAIN using chrome.

    I’d use chrome for work and firefox for fun, for now.

  11. Avatar for makr makr says:

    chrome’s fast w/ some eye candy but i still prefer the safari & firefox over it..

    might change my mind though coz i know it’s still in the beta stage.

  12. Avatar for Jay Jay says:

    chrome: it’s fast.

  13. Avatar for Rondon Rondon says:

    I’m using it right now under Windows 2000. (got it running there via the chrome2k “patch” from the web). What I like about it is that despite eating up tons of memory, it feels “smooth”. Pages load quickly (as I see it), the way it animates the tabs when you drag it is smooth. The status bar is unobtrusive, same with the download bar.

    Hope that “smooth” feeling gets transferred to other browsers in the future.

  14. Avatar for joaquinbordado joaquinbordado says:

    Fast and efficient, kaso parang nghahang sya..tska ala sya ung gaya sa FF tska opera ung search options..(wiki,imdb,yahoo..etc)

  15. Avatar for BrianB BrianB says:

    Amazing, amazing, amazing.

  16. Avatar for BrianB BrianB says:

    This is a great preview here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fwNH49zuqw

    truly an amazing browser Design is a generation or two ahead of firefox 3. Really incredible. The best browser by a mile.

  17. Avatar for BrianB BrianB says:

    Best part is that each tab is a single unit, amazing.

  18. Avatar for BrianB BrianB says:

    The sad part about Google Chrome is that it will not dislodge IE. It’s a Firefox competitor and will surely push FF into the brink. Good luck to FF.

  19. Avatar for elmer elmer says:

    thumbs up.. fast and simple. i love the incognito feature.

    i guess goog is really looking forward to the days where there’s no need to have a fat apps client and everything works with the browser.. called chrome

  20. Avatar for Jaypee Jaypee says:

    Thumbs up but…

    Chrome is definitely faster and lighter than Firefox and other browsers but when I read the TOA and the line that JC pointed out, I stopped using it. Now that they’ve removed that, then I’m gonna continue using it but Firefox will remain as my default browser mainly because of the addons/extensions that I can’t live out with. :)

  21. Avatar for Gel Gel says:

    I tried using it but most likely i’m sticking with Mozilla :D I dunno.. for some reason there’s something weird about Chrome but I can’t figure out exactly what!

  22. Avatar for Marc Marc says:

    Loading is fast compared to IE and Firefox. It shutdown when there is an error. One thing I’ve noticed, There is no drop down menu on the previous page you visited, you need to check the history tab to look for your previously visited site, Much better that scrolling.

  23. Avatar for Nonoy Nonoy says:

    Simple and fast. I love it!

  24. Avatar for jhay jhay says:

    I’m using it as my default browser since yesterday. And so far, everything has been great.

    The security flaw is a good concern but since I’m very careful in downloading files off the net, it wouldn’t be a big deal for me.

    I can’t wait for the first plugins for Chrome to come out. :)

  25. Avatar for kouji kouji says:

    i was thinking about downloading it. but i’ve already gotten so used to my firefox add ons, that i don’t really think i could use some other browser as my primary.

  26. Avatar for max max says:

    i like how it looks AND like the new functionalities provided ..

    1. most visited sites page
    2. in the fonts and languages filipino and french are included.
    3. open the following pages on startup i thought is really helpful

    and so on and on ..

  27. Avatar for purelocke purelocke says:

    Definitely thumbs up! Faster and leaner, even the UI is sleek in my opinion. I do miss some of the extensions in Firefox, but the speed at which Chrome handles web apps is just great. It also breezes around javascript heavy sites, which would be any site heavily relying in AJAX. Right now, I still have Firefox as my default browser, but I’ve been using Chrome ( including writing this comment ) exclusively for 2 days now. About running it in Linux, I’ll try it on WINE when I have a chance, but I think this should run pretty easy.

    With regards to the webkit security flaw – I’m not so much concerned as the attack needs social engineering into making you think that the download is part of a system message ( or part of the browser ), — which makes it easier to avoid and detect. I personally direct all my downloads to a Temp folder ( for all browsers, and the first thing I did to Chrome was to set its download path ) where I can check for files I want and delete those that I do not need ( or have used but do not serve me any purpose anymore ). Also, make it a practice to not open files using the browser download box, just go to your downloads folder to do that. I do hope Google patches this flaw soon, but this should not hinder people from trying it out.

  28. Avatar for JC John SESE-Cuneta JC John SESE-Cuneta says:

    Ah, thanks Tim, so it was finally removed. I’ve been thinking last night if they just copied and paste their Generic or Universal EULA to Chrome in time for release, it seems so, lol.

    Ok, now back to Chrome craziness…. I’ll try to make it work in GNU/Linux hehe :p

  29. Avatar for Tim Tim says:

    JC John, that’s answered here:
    http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/does_google_have_rights_to_all.php

  30. Avatar for kath kath says:

    hmm i like the interface. simple but elegant. besides i love the bluish gray color :) as for a not so techie girl, well setting it up is ok, i found my way easily to customize most if not everything. im still trying to use it just for the sake of testing it out but still im using firefox as usual.

  31. Avatar for JC John SESE-Cuneta JC John SESE-Cuneta says:

    Check this out:

    First, define “Services”:

    1.1 Your use of Google’s products, software, services and web sites (referred to collectively as the “Services” in this document and excluding any services provided to you by Google under a separate written agreement) is subject to the terms of a legal agreement between you and Google. “Google” means Google Inc., whose principal place of business is at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States. This document explains how the agreement is made up, and sets out some of the terms of that agreement.

    Second, the issue:

    11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

    1) The word “through” was used.
    2) Google Chrome is a “product” of Google and thus is included in “Services”

    In other words,
    “By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”

    means Google CAN do all of those to YOUR CONTENT which you submit, post or display on or THROUGH, the Services (example: Google Chrome).

    ——-
    PS, I hope I am wrong ;)

    Also found via Wikipedia, I only emphasized the keyword which wasn’t emphasized by the original article.

  32. Avatar for Alfie Alfie says:

    its COOL. There’s only a slight problem in showing kontera ads.

  33. Avatar for JC John SESE-Cuneta JC John SESE-Cuneta says:

    Here are more details:

    Layout Engine: WebKit – [1] FLOSS developed by Apple (which is used by Safari and other browsers); [2] a fork of KDE’s KHTML (which is used by Konqueror); [3] Chrome v0.2 is using an old version of WebKit (Safari 3.1.0 equivalent; latest WebKit is used by Safari 3.1.2)
    Rich Internet Application (RIA): Gears
    JavaScript Engine: Google V8
    Graphics Library: Skia Graphic Library (SGL)
    Project Behind Chrome: Chromium

    It is interesting to note the following:
    1) Google used FLOSS projects to build Chrome
    2) Chrome was developed by 2 ex-Mozilla Firefox developers
    3) It is importing from Firefox only upon installation
    4) Will surely be integrated with Android
    5) This is beta (LOL) so don’t expect ‘perfectness’

    Personally, IMO, Chrome > Safari > Firefox > Opera > IE8

    This was posted using Chrome v0.2 btw :p

  34. Avatar for Thumbbook Thumbbook says:

    I’m using Chrome, and so far, I’ts working great for me, and I love the incognito feature!

  35. Avatar for minor minor says:

    aero + chrome = eye candy

  36. Avatar for Mark Mark says:

    Really cool browser, i’m using it now with no problem.. =D

  37. Avatar for BigBird BigBird says:

    Killer apps rules! Chrome is Google’s OS as internet as their platform. Chrome is a Cloud Operating Systems for Google Apps. Stocks are sky rocketing now and Microsoft are already loosing big time!

  38. Avatar for Gwapito.com Gwapito.com says:

    This afternoon my Chrome crashed even though i did not use it for about 30 minutes. Still buggy.

  39. Avatar for Rex Rex says:

    I’m using chrome now. Too bad it can’t replicate the zoom feature of Firefox 3.

  40. Avatar for Lyle, RN Lyle, RN says:

    I just tried Chrome on my Vista laptop, it looks good with Aero.

    But the XP version is still too ‘XP-ish’ for me. So, I guess for me it will be:

    Firefox when using my XP Desktop
    Chrome when using my Vista Laptop

    Since this is open-source, I hope other browsers adopt the ‘separate process for ever tab’ approach of chrome.

  41. Avatar for Lyle, RN Lyle, RN says:

    I’m using it now. I don’t like the color scheme, it’s to ‘XP-ish’ for me. I hope there’s a way to change the color scheme.

    But I like that it handles tabs as separate processes so when one tab crashes, the entire browser won’t crash.

    About the security flaw, I think Google will be able to address it soon.

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